Love or Hate: Do you keep invasive coral in your tank?

[CoastalTownLayabout]

It’s a shame new reefers get put off starting out with some of these beautiful corals. Would make their first learning experience systems much more enjoyable.

 

[jasonrusso]

I have GSP on my back wall. I have green palys all over. I have clumps of Xenia........ And I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[divewsharks]

For me, I have firework cloves -- i keep isolated, they will grow everywhere and send runners; as well as Grandis Paly's - they look cool, but grow fast. I have given many chunks away.

 

[Lasse]

No comments

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Pod_01]

It looks nice…. Lot better looking when compared to algae…

 

[Budman93]

I dont consider GSP invasive only because it just spreads locally and to my knowledge doesnt break off and get everywhere in the tank like bubble algae or caulerpa would for example. Im actually not sure if there are coral like that. maybe Xenia but I've never actually kept that.

 

[Jeremy_d]

Lava flow lepto. I moved it three times from one place to another. Probably broke off a microscopic piece of it during each move because it’s growing in all three places now. Beautiful coral though so I wouldn’t call it invasive but definitely hadn’t planned on having three colonies of it. Relatively quick grower also.

 

[McPuff]

There are several. On their own, the corals are very pretty but they just aren't easy to control. Sunset monti, ricordia yumas, and several others. I also have a rock with some very large neon hairy mushrooms (5" diameter). Looks like a huge anemone and it's isolated which is KEY.

 

[snorklr]

when I restarted the first thing i bought was Xenia...it immediately started dropping buds that blew all over the tank...to places i'd never be able to find...yanked it out after 2 days...at least when i had kenya trees the pieces were large enough to find

 

[JulesH]

Plating 'bloomin' montipora.

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

when I restarted the first thing i bought was Xenia...it immediately started dropping buds that blew all over the tank...to places i'd never be able to find...yanked it out after 2 days...at least when i had kenya trees the pieces were large enough to find

Xenia drop buds??? That explains the mystery new Xenia an inch to its right. Thankfully mine is in a lower flow area, maybe they won’t spread far.

 

[divewsharks]

There are several. On their own, the corals are very pretty but they just aren't easy to control. Sunset monti, ricordia yumas, and several others. I also have a rock with some very large neon hairy mushrooms (5" diameter). Looks like a huge anemone and it's isolated which is KEY.

I've actually never heard someone call a yuma a pest. Sunset monti i grow on the back wall so it can do whatever it wants.

 

[AstroMelly]

GSP on a rock island and on the weir in our peninsula. It was really hard to get it started on the weir glass - superglue did not work well enough as our trochus snails kept breaking it off. I think they liked chomping around the glass at the edges. I ended up 3D printing a hemispherical cage and glued that around it for a few months to allow it to take hold. It’s growing well now but slowly.

The rock island is now completely covered and looks great. Reading this post reminded me I need to move it further away from the main rock work so it doesn’t spread. If it hasn’t already!

Also +1 on plating montis and we have an encrusting tropic thunder that I would also classify as partly invasive but it is also very beautiful!

 

[AstroMelly]

I've actually never heard someone call a yuma a pest. Sunset monti i grow on the back wall so it can do whatever it wants.

We have a Yuma also which has recently decided to leave the rock it was on and left a few babies behind - perhaps to give them room to grow themselves. This Yuma is quite aggressive from what I have witnessed and has killed parts of some nearby alveopora either by smothering or stinging. Also I see some rhodactis nearby receding now it is on the move. I would consider this coral more difficult to manage than GSP since they are harder to reattach once mobile.

 

[Olefreebe]

I've tried to grow GSP numerous times with the intent of it taking over whatever island I've got it set up on, but it never flourishes. I keep a plethora of other corals from soft to hard but my tanks are the GSP killers.

I'm trying to get it to cover the back wall of my pico tank right now, and it goes through periods of real healthy looking growth and then dieback.

Same for me narideth...

 

[DDenny]

I have some GSP that I am trying to get to grow on the back wall. I love the way to sways with the flow of water, but I do not want it on my may rockwork.. I am have a small Monti Cap that was given to me that has almost doubled in size in a month that I still on the plug on the sandbed. Trying to figure out the best spot for it so that I can keep it cut back easily when needed.

 

[JayM]

With the exception of plating monti, my tank is where invasive corals go to die. I had a baseball sized rock covered with GSP and for no apparent reason withered away to nothing, and the couple of times I’ve tried since have resulted in the same outcome. Xenia is no different.